


No Living Family

by TurtleTotem



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 08:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18961552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleTotem/pseuds/TurtleTotem
Summary: I always felt sorry for Peter's grandfather, so I made Peter come back to see him.On Tumblrhere.





	No Living Family

The old man was more animated than she'd ever seen him, when Rosie clocked in that day.

"Rosie. Rosie, my grandson came to see me. He's alive."

"Is that so, Mr. Quill?" Rosie raised her eyebrows. Everyone knew Mr. Quill didn't have any living family.

"He stood right in that doorway, and said 'Grandpa?' and I knew him right away, even though I hadn't seen him in thirty years. I knew him. He looks just like his mother."

"That's wonderful, Mr. Quill." Rosie started counting out Mr. Quill's medications. "So he's alive after all?"

"He is!"

"Where's he been all this time?"

"You won't believe it. He's been off in _space!"_

Rosie gave a startled laugh. "In space? That's a new one." Mr. Quill wasn't usually _quite_ this out of it, but she'd learned to just roll with whatever the patients said. It was mostly just cruel to try to bring them back to reality.

"I didn't believe him at first. But he showed me his laser gun, and his space mask."

"Mm-hmm."

"He has a spaceship, but he couldn't show it to me. It was waiting for him in orbit."

"How convenient."

"I told him how we looked for him." Mr. Quill's voice broke. "How we put signs on all the telephone polls. Talked to the news. Dredged the river. Never found anything. Oh, sometimes people would say they'd seen him, but it always turned out to be someone else. We did find another kidnapped boy that way, though. So some good came of it. Some good came out of it all. Even though we never found him."

Gently, Rosie said, "I'm real glad for that, Mr. Quill."

"He cried, Rosie. Said he was sorry for staying away so long. He didn't really think I'd miss him so much, on account of I was so harsh with him as a boy. I told him I was so sorry for that. He didn't deserve me shouting at him so much. My little girl was dying, Rosie. I didn't know how to deal with it. A man shouldn't outlive his children."

"That's the truth, Mr. Quill. I'm so sorry you had to endure that." She handed him his pills and some water; he swallowed without complaint.

"But he's got a good life now, out in space. He was taken by aliens, Rosie, that night he disappeared—he didn't run away, he was taken. And the aliens were mean to him sometimes, but they were also his family, in their own way. And the other folks on his ship, they're all aliens but they're family now, they look after each other and they're happy. They're making their way through the galaxy, free as a bird. He's happy out there. What do you think of that, Rosie?"

"I'm real glad he came to tell you that, Mr. Quill."

"I am too, Rosie. I am too."


End file.
